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Beckerman, Rogers, Kitchen set for training stints with German clubs

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Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

A few more U.S. national team players will be extending their trips to Europe.

Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and the Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers have had training stints arranged with Bundesliga club Kaiserslautern by U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, joining the growing movement of MLS players getting training experience with top-flight European clubs.

They're not the only ones getting Bundesliga experience, either. 

D.C. United's Perry Kitchen, coming off a strong rookie season and an invite to the just-concluded U.S. Under-23 national team camp that was held in Duisburg, Germany, will train with SC Freiburg for the next week, sources told SBI. 

While Klinsmann arranged the training periods for Beckerman and Rogers, Kitchen's was set up independently.

"In an effort to have USMNT players stay more fit during the MLS offseason, Coach Klinsmann arranged for me to train at FC Kaiserslautern for a few weeks. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be in Germany. So far we have been treated very well and I'm looking forward to this new experience," Beckerman said in an online statement.

For Rogers, who is set to be out of contract with the Crew and has expressed a wish to return to Europe, the training period is not a trial, but it does provide him an opportunity to catch the eye of Kaiserslautern coach Marco Kurz. He confirmed the training stint on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

Beckerman, Rogers and Kitchen join New York Red Bulls forward Juan Agudelo as MLS players training in Germany for the time being. Agudelo joined VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday.

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What do you think of these developments? Happy to see more and more Americans get training time overseas?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. biff,

    “If Ream or Orozco would have made similar mistakes they would have been attacked mercilessly by some fans.”

    The difference is Goodson has 27 caps and a pretty good track record.

    He has been a pretty solid player for the most part. He is normally quite dominant in the air but it was insanely foggy and that does tend to favor the offense when it comes to an aerial attack.

    Plus he is the captain of Brondby and that really means something in Europe. Everyone slips and falls at times.

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  2. Eurosnob,
    ” Klinsmann. He capped Fab Johnson, Williams and Shea. The did not play a single minute under BB. Klinsi also returned Buddle and Torres from the BB’s doghouse. And it was Klinsmann who discovered solution to the left back problem by making Chandler a regular starter at that position.”

    Those who are heavily criticizing JK are way too early. He is just barely getting started. And most of the criticisms tell you much more about the comparative ignorance of his critics.
    Nevertheless your defense of JK and attack on BB is equally ignorant and unfair.
    Bradley capped Shea at least twice. JK has benefited from the fact that by the time JK got the job Shea was on fire for Dallas. So the guy to be credited is Hyndmann not JK.
    Williams and Johnson were not officially eligible for the US before BB got the axe. Johnson had filed his switch and Williams had not even gotten his passport. Thanks mostly to Rongen, the dual national thing was well on its way before JK got the job though he obviously adds something to it.
    BB barely had time to see Chandler at right back let alone convert him to left back. At the time Lichaj was doing fairly okay with his own conversion to LB. Lichaj has since been injured so the necessity to convert Chandler became more urgent. The idea that BB somehow was too stupid to convert Chandler to a left back is very unfair.

    And as for his WC record, BB had the US players in South Africa and JK had Germany’s players, at home no less. Who do you suppose is likely to have a better World Cup record?

    JK was a timely hire but you needn’t tear down BB in such an ignorant fashion just to elevate JK.

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  3. Actually, Bob Bradley gave Shea his first cap against Colombia in September 2010. Bradley capped Shea again in January’s friendly with Chile.

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  4. You got it all wrong. Criticism is fuel of growth. Negative criticism of specific players doesn’t mean they are “hated”(although I kind of hate Beckerman’s “hair style”. jesus, dude, it’s soccer not hackey sac. Is it a requirement for the US to have at least 1 cartoon character on the team – Lalas, Jones,Agoos, now Beckerman?)

    oh wait, where was I? oh yeah, I hate Beckerman Rogers and Bornsein. and would prefer that they never get called in to represent the US again.

    no that wasn’t it, oh right, uhmm Penn State.

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  5. “Had Goodson held, as Chandler had done, then Matavz would have been offside. ”
    Chandler had broken the line well before Goodson dropped back–the attacker closer to him could have made the exact same run with even more space.

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  6. Dennis, I agree with you on Goodson. Although he played with total heart and had some good moments, he was the one player against France and Slovenia whose performances against France and Slovenia should probably exclude him from further call-ups and Klinsmann instead should start calling in guys like Gonzales, Cameron and John for tests. If you look at the game tape against Slovenia you will see that Goodson did not hold his position on the back defensive line on the first goal, allowing Matavz to break forward and catch the pass and score. Had Goodson held, as Chandler had done, then Matavz would have been offside. On the second goal, Goodson was guarding Matavz but slipped and fell to the ground, as he did on the France goal, allowing Matavz to break free and score. If Ream or Orozco would have made similar mistakes they would have been attacked mercilessly by some fans.

    The collapse against Slovenia of what had previously been excellent USMNT defense was troubling. I agree with MB supporters that MB had a solid game game against Slovenia taking over the right wing spot that Danny Williams had been playing, was much, much calmer and better handling the ball than Williams. And Dempsey was much better at offensive central midfielder, the slot that Edu had been playing. But both those changes, I think, at the same time weakened the defense considerable, with several major defensive lapses already in the first half and in the second half the defense totally fell apart. We lost the second half bad. It was great to finally have some luck and hold on to the final whistle for the win, but I don’t think we will ever see that starting line-up again, at least not against a better team. France would have destroyed that line-up, which, actually, shows how clever Klinsmann is for not trying it in Paris. He still has a lot of tinkering to do to find the most effective players and combinations before WCQ.

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  7. I think Goodson has done well for the US. However, he is old enough that he is not likely to improve much more (and may be on the decline).
    Parkhurst was called up for the 2007 Gold cup and played in against T&T. I don’t recall his performance, but it did not overly impress Bradley or his staff and he was never recalled. He is 2 years younger than Goodson and plays in the same league. Not sure there is that much upside for him, the others: Miller is 26 and was waived by DC and now plays in Sweden for Halmstadts where has 49 appearances since 2010. Kazlauskas is 29 and a right back for Helmond Sport in the Dutch Eerdivisie (and had 124 appearances for Dutch team Ossand 73 for Helmond). I’ve never seen him play. Rusin is 25 and has played professionally only in the USL until this fall when he signed with newly promoted HB Koge in the Danish Superliga where he has 6 appearances.
    I imagine only Rusin might have the most upside in the future since he is the youngest of the lot, Kaz is the most experienced in europe, but I am not sure any of them is really the answer for the future backline for the US.

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  8. I don’t get it why haven’t these CENTER BACKS been called PARKHURST, RYAN MILLER, CHARLES KAZLAUSKAS, AND BRAD RUSIN ALL PLAY IN EUROPE WHATS UP WITH THAT CUZ I DON’T THINK GOODSON ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH. WHAT U GUYS THINK ???

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  9. I know this is out of the question but is THERE ANY WORD ON CHARLIE DAVIS GOING BACK TO FRANCE ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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  10. I wonder if JK & Rogers have a Penn State thing going on… Sup!

    JK putting our some of our MLS players in Europe training camps is just magnificent. JK for president!

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  11. considering the board fired him after i believe one season, doubt he gets people there. But if the player is good enough there is no reason to doubt they could make it.

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  12. they didn’t exactly have the same responsibilities. While I agree Bradley is a much better player, you are off on how you are comparing them.

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  13. I think that you are a bit unfair to Klinsmann. He capped Fab Johnson, Williams and Shea. The did not play a single minute under BB. Klinsi also returned Buddle and Torres from the BB’s doghouse. And it was Klinsmann who discovered solution to the left back problem by making Chandler a regular starter at that position. And as for his WC record, it is quite a bit more accomplished that BB’s record. Klinsmann has already led his team far beyond advancing from the group stage to a third place finish in the WC, when he coached Germany. This is something that BB will probably never achieve in his coaching career. And as for Klinsmann’s record with the USMNT, as I stated earlier, it is too early to judge.

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  14. +1,000,001
    Anyone who claims that a young player will never be any good is just foolish.

    Wondolowski has won (or shared) the gold boot in MLS the past 2 years. While you can question his international performance, you cannot argue that he has failed to improve from age 23 to 27 (and scored more goals than any of the darlings many here promote in the process).

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  15. I pretty much agree and believe that the reason he plays so close to the back four is he knows his speed limitations and does not want them exposed so he starts out deeper where he will not be called upon to retreat quickly. It is smart of him in the isolated sense that he will not show off his lack of pace so often, but not tactically smart from the point of view of helping the team keep its shape and being ready to pressure players sooner to prevent the kind of penetrating passes than can beat the back four. (Slovenia is a good team, but they had too much time to make through passes that caught our back four in tough situations, they are not that good that more immediate pressure would not have prevented some of those passes.)

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  16. I wonder how these training stints are going down with MLS coaches like Jason kries. On one hand he’s happy to see one his best players get valuable experience in Germany. On the other hand he might be nervous about losing a player who has impressed enough to get an offer. I’m not saying offers are coming but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few mls players had offers after the training period is over.

    It would be cool to see Agudelo get an offer and get out of that joke of an organization in NJ.

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  17. Yea beckerman is going to distribute calmly and snub out attacks. He’s done just that. Nothing sexy and that’s what all the negativity is about. During Slovenia he made one bad choice when he impatiently shot from distance. He didn’t have the best game but every defender was made to look silly by Slovenias young goal scorer (can’t remember his name but he’s very good) as he split double teams etc.

    Speed is important but it’s not everything. If it was Robbie Rogers might be starting.

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  18. I think Beckerman has been pretty solid defensively in these friendlies. Great tactical awareness, good position and sound tacking help him make up his lack of speed.

    That said I think sometimes he has a tendency to sit to close to the back four (not a terrible habit for a d-mid), however it can leave lots of space in the center of the park for opponents to exploit … i.e. the second half of the Slovenia game.

    I should note that the issue I pointed out above is not could have been help out, to a large extent,if Klinsmann had made tactical changes earlier in the second half to cope with the added numbers Slovenia was dropping into the center of the park.

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  19. Agree. Beckerman is the classic stay at home defensive mid, and we don’t have as many as people seem to think. He is not afraid to make tackles, and he plays the ball on the ground rather than just booting it forward. It’s not always perfect, but it seems fairly obvious why Klinsmann likes him. If we want someone to push forward from this position, then Beckerman’s not the guy. But as a fifth defender who can tackle and pass, he’s pretty solid. It’s not like we’re giving up lots of goals while he’s back there, and he breaks up a lot of plays.

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  20. disagree Nick. Since Beckerman has been playing we have not seen a single early goal that developed just high of the 18. That was the USMNT’s calling card for awhile (that and run at Johnny B). Junior needs to be on the pitch, but not that deep. he was a terror because he had someone else tasked to be the deep DM. Are Jones and Edu better choices? maybe, but Beckerman isn’t nearly as poor as people are making him out to be.

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  21. I will say this. Since Beckerman has been playing we have not seen a single early goal that developed just high of the 18. That was the USMNT’s calling card for awhile (that and run at Johnny B).

    Yes, I wish he was a better passer and a step quicker but he’s locking that down for every minute he’s on the pitch and I’ll give him full credit for it. I’ll take a clean sheet over a pretty pass any day. Can Jones do better or Edu? Maybe, but for now he’s doing what’s asked of him and he’s parlaying that into a stint in Europe. Good for him and good for US soccer. JFT has his work clearly set out before him. If he can tackle and hustle at the same rate that Beckerman has then I think position is his for the taking, But Bradley and Edu seem to figure in differently for JK. Besides, look how effective Junior is playing higher up the field.

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  22. Just wish he’d get off of Kyle Borenstein’s jock… ahem i mean Beckerman!

    Seriously, if JK can’t see how much better Bradley is than Beckerman from the last match where they pretty much played side by side (it was just cherunderlo on that right flank offensively)then we’ve got a problem going forward.

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